The Iron Weyr
by Tyrammafar
Summary: Eight-hundred turns have brought war to Pern, with two separate nations rising in the north; Telgar and Benden. Now only Igen Weyr remains to be caught in inevitable war...against the dragons of Telgar's so-called 'Iron Weyr of Pern'.


**Takes place 800 years after the Final Pass (11). Because of this, while extremely similar, the world has changed extensively. Expect some minor confusion at first, and a lack of canonicity; I just wanted to see how something like this would play out.**

**I'm not certain what I was thinking when I came up with this idea, but it's a lot more complex than what you see on the surface. There are more than two sides to every conflict, and when one side vanishes (Thread), someone has to take it's place. Right now it's the Telgarian Empire and the Benden Holdships against each other with Igen Weyr caught in the middle...but there's another side emerging that seems intent on complicating matters.  
**

**CHAPTER 1**

**The Threat of War**

'_Here we fall, here we die; and so turn to naught but dust and echoes…'_

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B'ann was taking a while. Senth could be very patient, generally because he was so absentminded, but normally it didn't take his rider _this _long to finish his 'business', as he called it. Really B'ann wasn't supposed to leave the Watchrock while on duty, but they had come to the conclusion that Senth could watch the Igen bowl well enough at this time of the morning. They wouldn't have to take watch duty until next sevenday, so a little extra time awake wouldn't hurt the brown…

…Senth's slowly whirling eyes were almost closed when a cold blast of air struck his side, bringing him upright with a jolt of surprise. A small blue dragon had appeared suddenly from _between, _landing on the stone Watchrock with a thump, wings already folded. The blue's rider leapt from his neck and was running down the stairs in a moment, leaving the odd blue to sit on his haunches.

'_Oh. Hello,' _Senth said. The blue whirled around with yellow eyes wide in alarm. Upon seeing Senth lying curled around the spire of sun-warmed rock that sat on the edge of the Watchrock, he calmed visibly, hopping forward on his hind legs. The blue was at least half of Senth's size, and was forced to look up at his raised head.

'_Chaketa!'_ the blue dragon said, chirruping oddly in his throat. Around his neck was hung a shaped dome of metal, which covered his chest and belly. Senth thought it looked uncomfortable. _'Means 'hello'. D'len taught me it.'_

'_Well, hello,' _Senth replied, tilting his head to one side to look at the blue more closely. _'I'm sorry; I don't remember your name…'_

'_No mind, it's Canast.' _The blue danced in one spot, causing the array of buckles strapped to his thin body to jingle loudly. There were several other plates of metal covering other parts of the dragon, but none of them touched another. It looked a lot like the armor Senth had seen worn by men of the Telgarian Empire. _'I'm not from around Igen, so it's no wonder you don't remember my name,' _Canast continued, speaking almost too quickly to follow. _'You can't remember what you never learned to remember, can you?'_

'_I think you're right at that,' _Senth said, giving it some thought. _'I like that metal you're wearing. It looks very nice.'_

'_Thank you…' _Canast seemed more subdued when the subject suddenly turned to the metal plates on his body. The blue dropped to all fours, turning about and rubbing against a shoulder-plate with an eye-ridge. _'D'len says it makes me look handsome, but I think it's heavy. It _is _comfortable enough, but takes so long to get on.'_

Senth nodded; it took his rider a long time to get dressed, so it made sense that it might take a while to dress a dragon. Maybe longer because they were bigger? _'If you don't mind me asking, but why are you and your rider here? It's my duty to ask, you know…being on watch and all. Oh! I forgot to call out!'_

Canast chirped oddly again, shaking his head in imitation of a man saying 'no'. _'No matter, no matter! We're expected to be here, so no need to wake everyone from sleep? D'len is on a 'secret mission', besides!'_

'_A 'secret mission'? Really?' _Senth lowered his head closer to Canast, now very much awake. _'Oh please do tell me! I won't tell anyone else!'_

'_I'm not supposed to…but…' _Canast kneaded his claws in the dust. _'Alright, it can't hurt. D'len is here to pick up something for the Healer, to make Lemoth better. But it's supposed to be a secret!'_

'_Yes, of course!' _At this time anything further was cut off by the return of Canast's rider, D'len, who ran up the stairs carrying a small box. Canast bent low so his rider could climb to his place on his back, and the blue dragon leapt into the air with a rush of his wings. _'Goodbye, Canast!'_

'_Akaleta! Un vervida!' _With that the blue vanished into _between_.

Senth felt confusion from B'ann, who had only now become aware that Senth had been speaking to someone. _'He was very polite, if nervous.'_

'_Who was, Senth?' _came the response from B'ann.

'_Canast. Young and blue, and very uneasy when he speaks, so he talks faster than he should,' _Senth tried to remember as much of the short conversation as he could. _'He wore metal and leather much like what you would wear in flight and it was very nice. D'len must be very concerned for his safety on their mission.'_

There was a very long pause from B'ann. _'There aren't any dragonmen named D'len here in Igen, Senth. Or any blues named Canast.'_

'_Well, that makes no sense at all. Then who were they if not from Igen? There aren't any other Weyrs, are there?'_

B'ann was suddenly so frantic that it seemed to press down on Senth's hearts. He had not felt anything like this since he had almost drowned in the ocean. _'Senth, you big fool! Roar! Rouse the Weyr!'_

_

* * *

  
_

"So, we don't know where they came from, we don't know exactly what they took from us because of badly-kept records, and we don't know where they went from here," The Weyrleader, N'san, listed to the rest of the dragonmen sitting at the old wooden table. A few were sinking lower in their seats, ashamed that they were so overcome.

"Or when," mentioned Sara from her mate's side. "Remember that dragons can go _between _times when they wish. They could have come from the future for a reason."

"Or the past, though that's unlikely; no coordinates for them to use then."

The mood had been sour yesterday throughout the Weyr, and it had only become worse with the strange raid in the night. With the Benden Holdship to the east begging for aid, and the Telgarian Empire to the west demanding that they relinquish the Weyr to them as a fortress, no one could manage to stay cheerful for long.

Igen was the last Weyr in existence, as once had happened with the now deserted Benden nearly eight-hundred turns ago. In this case they knew where the other Weyrs had gone; _between _in death, as disease ravaged the dragonmen. Three-hundred and ten turns ago a plague began spreading through the Weyrs, and only Igen was able to find the cure; a type of moss that grew in caves to the north.

At least, it was believed that Igen was the last; until now, when an unknown dragon appeared without warning on some form of 'mission'. Apparently for another dragon's health, to pick up something for a healer…but few were willing to trust that, even if it was spoken by a dragon.

"No thoughts?" N'san asked, to which he received no response. "There has been no word from the Southern Weyr since the eruption, but I doubt that it would have taken thirty turns to send a message that they were alright. For some reason I doubt they are alive to send a dragon here."

"Perhaps there is another Weyr?"

N'san's second snorted. "Without a queen? There's no queen but Niali on Pern, or the dragons would know. They _always _know."

"True enough…" N'san leaned back in his chair, placing both booted feet on the table. No one seemed to notice his lack of manners. "…so we're left with no lead on their identity, a missing box of…something…and a Weyr full of confused men and dragons that don't understand what has happened that we're so aggravated about."

"Senth says that the blue was wearing armor," B'ann said softly; he had already been condemned for abandoning his post during the night watch, and he was reluctant to bring anything else upon himself…and his dragon. "Telgarian armor; polished steel and black leather. No markings for a Hold, though."

"Then with that, we're left assuming that the Telgarians have managed to bring back their own dragons…and fit them for war," N'san let out an exhausted sigh. "Right; then why do the dragons not know about it? Either they do not actually exist, our dragons are keeping it a secret, or the other dragons are hiding themselves somehow."

"No one knows everything dragons are capable of," Sara said. "Not even themselves."

"If I had been there on watch as I should have been…"

"B'ann, no one is saying that this was your fault." Beside N'san his second snorted. "You thought the Weyr was secure enough with Senth, but a talkative blue got advantage of him."

"…Canast," a gray-haired dragoman muttered from the other side of the table. "Sounds like a Ruathan name to me, but not a dragon one."

"So…B'ann and C'nol both believe that the dragon was from somewhere in the Telgarian Empire." Both men mentioned nodded slowly. "In that case, I have quite a few questions to ask the traders when they pass through."

"B'ann," started N'san's second, before pausing. "Tell Senth that the next time he sees this 'Canast, he's to keep him and his partner grounded until we can question them." He glanced about the table. "Same to anyone else; we have to figure out as much as we can about this other dragonrider; the Telgarians have already threatened war on the Weyr, and if they have convinced dragons to help them…"

"…the Weyr would be lost," C'nol finished, pushing his hair from his eyes. "And the Benden Holdship would be conquered next."

* * *

The word was spread across the Weyr that there was a 'rogue' pair that had invaded the night before, and that each man and dragon was to watch for them and keep them grounded the next time they were spotted. Every dragon among them denied that they knew other dragons existed.

When the traders that traveled between the nations of Telgar and Benden arrived and provisions were purchased from them for a sevenday of shelter (in relative safety from the holdless raiders that usually hunted them), they were questioned thoroughly. None of them had heard of other dragons on Pern; Igen was the last Weyr. Everyone knew _that_.

It _was _learned, however, that the Telgarian Empire was pulling young men into their military, melting down what metal they had in favor of swords, knives, arrowheads, and light armor. With as little resources as they could manage, Telgar was arming for war, and doing so quickly.

The Harper Hall had sent a journeyman with the traders, and through him the Weyr learned of a project the Empress herself had commissioned from the Mastersmith. The lid was as tight as that of a pot of numbing salve, so it was said, but information leaked out regarding a shipment of firestone bound for the ruins of High Reaches Weyr, and the Mastersmith riding with it.


End file.
